Sometimes Planning Time feels like kids saying whatever pops into their heads first so they can escape the table and go play. But the play ends up being not very prolonged, lacking depth, inappropriate for the environment, and/or without direction.
To avoid getting in this rut, we have recently focused on quality planning. First we identified when Planning Time happens in our daily schedule. (It always happens right before Work Time.) During our Greeting Time, we talked about what is supposed to happen when we make our plans, and sorted good plans from not.
- For example, if I want to spend my time painting, a good plan would be to go to the Art Area, put my paper on the easel, and use the paints and paint brushes there.
- If I want to spend my time painting, a bad plan would be to go to the Alone Table where there is no paint.
*Plans should help us decide the correct Area to go to. Planning helps us to identify what we want to work with.*
There seemed to be a growing trend to play house in the Toy and Puzzle Area with friends becoming upset that they did not have the correct materials for the plan. This conversation in Greeting Time addressed this planning problem.
After talking about planning generally during Greeting Time, we put the concepts into practice. We set a timer for two minutes and drew out ideas of what we wanted to do. Then we all took turns talking about our ideas to see what our friends wanted to do and where they wanted to go.
At Harmony's House, the classroom Areas are spread out between a few rooms. This means that we have to divide our time between one end of the house and the other for supervisory reasons.
Sometimes this means that what a child has planned to do must be postponed for a short time if the majority of children made plans for the Areas at the opposite side of the house, but because it was planned, it was definitely accomplished before Work Time was over.
All in all, the quality of play has improved in correspondence to the quality of the plans. In the picture featured with this post, you can see how hard the children worked to build this "house" with cardboard bricks and blocks, and all of the things they moved in. They prepared sleeping areas, seating, television, food, toys, and even floral decorations. After such careful work, they then assigned roles and played family. :)
